Wednesday, December 16, 2015

New ramen shops in Japan for Nov/Dec 2015 trip

1. TONTORO (Kagoshima)

This post is for the new ramen places that I tried this trip so the old reliables like Fuunji are not included. Tontoro is absolutely worth the 45 minute trip down from Kumamoto. Absolutely nothing to complain about.

2. BUTAYAROU (Nakano)

I've already written a post just for Butayarou. My stomach is rumbling right now. So many tonkotsu ramen shops in Melbourne and they are all shit.


3. Mankai (Temmabashi)

Finally, a good hakata tonkotsu ramenya in Osaka! The soup could be thicker but otherwise I like it. Get out of exit 4 at Temmabashi station, turn right and walk a few minutes and its on your right. You can find the map here.


4. ITTOU (Shin Koiwa)

Ittou has been on my go to list since years ago. There's always a waiting line of one hour. Now they've opened up a second shop in Shin Koiwa. I don't think there's any difference from the main shop.

Ittou is fish soup tsukemen, a flavour that Yoshi's Mensousai Mugen is going for but doesn't come close.


5. SEIRYUU (Shin Koiwa)

Not bad. If only they opened for dinner.

6. TONKOTSU RAMEN YOKAROUMON (Shinbashi)

I found one stupid Japanese post naming this one of the top 10 tonkotsu shops in Tokyo. Unfortunately, it tastes very generic. Nothing stood out for me at all.



7. ROKUGETSU Asakusabashi

Soup is decent, chaashiu is fucking awesome but the men is so bad. Really instant noodle quality. Sigh.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rootabega sez:
Thank you Akira-Mike for another great travelogue from Japan. G-damn, those ramen pics are appetizing-looking. I appreciate the fact that you have a discerning palate and you know what you like in ramen. Vancouver doesn't just share a similar climate with Melbourne, it also seems to have a ton of ramen joints, too. In fact, more than one person in Japan brought up how much Japanese food is available in my town, and I was like, "Yeah, but it's 90% crap." Just one taste of ramen at a random, nondescript ramenya on my first night in Japan blew away anything Vancouver had to offer. It's on a different level. Anyways, thanks for the in-depth reviews. Sluuurrrppp:)